9 Common Personality Traits Found in Leaders

Are you looking to become a better leader? Are you wondering what it takes to be a great leader?

When most people think of great leaders, they think of extroverts who like to take charge. But, it takes a lot more to be a great leader than just having an extroverted personality. 

What personality traits do you need?

Read on to discover the top personality traits that are found in great leaders. 

1. Self-Awareness 

In order to be a great leader, you need to be self-aware. 

Once you’re aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, you’ll be able to build a team with complementing characteristics. If you’re not aware of your developmental needs, then you’ll likely be more confident than you should be. 

And, you may not be aware of the critical skills your team needs to succeed. 

2. Honesty 

Great leaders are also very honest. In fact, according to a Pew Research Center Survey, 84 percent of respondents said that honesty is the most essential personality trait of a good leader. 

If you’re an honest leader, that means that you’re not just inspiring through your words, but through your actions. Honest leaders are able to build teams up from the ground, and they understand that effective leadership is built on trust. 

Having honest interactions with your employees is what builds a strong team and a strong workplace. 

3. Openness 

To be an effective leader, you must also be incredibly open. By openness, we mean how open you are to new experiences and how insightful and imaginative you can be. 

If you don’t have the desire to try new things and think creatively, then your business won’t be able to grow to its full potential. People with a lot of openness are also generally curious and artistic, while those who are less open tend to be more conventional and like to stay in their comfort zones. 

4. Conscientiousness 

When we think of leaders, we often think of a cold, stoic person ruling with an iron fist. While these leaders exist, they’re certainly not the most effective leaders. 

Conscientiousness measures how thoughtful, organized, and forward-thinking a person is. Conscientious leaders sympathize with their employees and provide them with thoughtful feedback. They’re good at coming up with long and short-term goals that drive the team’s everyday projects. 

5. Humility

Have you ever worked for someone who thought they were right all of the time? It probably wasn’t very fun working for them, was it?

Humility doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people in leadership roles. This is because when you become a leader, people automatically start turning to you for answers. Therefore, it can be easy to fall into a trap of always offering answers, even when you don’t know if they’re correct. 

In order to be an effective leader, you need to resist the urge to always offer direction. If you don’t know what the best answer is, ask your team for their ideas and thoughts. 

This level of willingness to take advice will help create a more open and honest workspace. 

6. Decisiveness 

While it’s important to be open to listening to others’ ideas and thoughts, as a good leader, you must also be willing to make the tough decisions. 

However, being decisive doesn’t mean that you should be making impulsive decisions. People want to follow someone who weighs out all of the options and then makes a calculated decision based on what they find. 

Also, in order to be a good leader, you must always make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization, and not yourself. 

7. Authenticity 

Good leaders don’t try to be one person inside the office and a different person outside of the office. 

When people try to do this, inevitably, the real person ends up coming out, particularly during stressful times. If your employees get the sense that you’re not being authentic in your words and actions, then this makes them question whether or not you’ll have their back when issues arise. 

If they don’t think you’ll have their back, then it can be assumed that they’ll start looking for another job. So, if you want to be a good leader, you need to be authentic about who you are from the start. Don’t try to be a different person at work than you are in the outside world, as people can see right through that. 

8. Curiosity 

Good leaders also have an insatiable curiosity. 

If you’re curious about a wide range of issues, it’ll be easier for you to spot opportunities and make connections within your industry. Plus, those who are curious are more likely to seek out unique answers to problems instead of going with the conventional method. 

To find out if someone has the right level of curiosity to be a good leader, you can have them take pre employment personality tests. 

9. Humor 

Let’s face it — if most of us had the choice between toiling away in the office and not having to work, we’d choose not to work. But, work is a necessary part of life, and good leaders know that just because work needs to be taken seriously, doesn’t mean we need to take ourselves too seriously. 

Now, this doesn’t mean you need to get carried away in thinking you need to be a comedian or put on a show for people. Just be yourself and let your authentic sense of humor shine through. 

Personality Traits for Leaders: Are You Ready to Be a Great Leader? 

Now that you know the top personality traits found in good leaders, it’s time to figure out which ones you embody. If you don’t embody all of these personality traits, don’t worry, as good leaders come in all shapes and sizes. 

Pretty soon, you’ll be on your way to becoming a great leader for your organization as you work to embody these traits. 

Be sure to check back in with our blog for more leadership tips and tricks.